Tag Archives: 2016

Review: Everybody Wants Some!! (USA 2016)

I’m not a Richard Linklater fanboy by any stretch of the imagination, and Everybody Wants Some is slight even by his standards, but damned if this wasn’t one of the most purely enjoyable films I’ve seen in years.

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Review: Doctor Strange (USA 2016)

Not to damn Doctor Strange with faint praise, but the film definitely reaches the upper echelons of Marvel movies, hitting that entertaining and workmanlike sweet spot while not quite ever achieving cinematic brilliance. Doctor Strange is, as has been widely … Continue reading

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Review: Weiner (USA 2016)

This documentary contains some fascinating material on the failed Anthony Weiner 2013 mayoral run in New York, though I was not overly impressed with the way, at least in the early going, the filmmakers put their thumb on the scale … Continue reading

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NYAFF 2017 Review: The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio (Japan 2016)

Sick of serious Miike? 13 Assassins and Hara-kiri Miike? Yearning for the older, wackier V-cinema Miike? Look no further than The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio (a belated sequel to 2013’s The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji). This film is … Continue reading

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NYAFF 2017 Review: Split (South Korea 2016)

The festival program describes Split as a mash-up of Rain Man and Kingpin, and that’s exactly right.  The problem is that there is way too much Rain Man, and way too little Kingpin.  It’s a bowling dramedy, but weighted heavily … Continue reading

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NYAFF 2017 Review:  Saving Sally (Phillippines 2016)

I really enjoyed Saving Sally, the passion project of director Avid Liongoren and screenwriter Charlene Sawit.  The film is bursting with creativity, the leads are sweet and likable, and the film has a lovely “Blues Clues meets Liquid Television” aesthetic … Continue reading

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Review: Lost in Paris aka Paris pieds nus (France/Belgium 2016)

God, I love when a movie really knows how to use color.  Most films nowadays experiment with monochrome or tints, but Lost in Paris is full of old school technicolor, Jacques Demy-flavor colors – luminescent greens, candy reds, blues and … Continue reading

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Review: The Neon Demon (France/Denmark/USA 2016)

Nicholas Winding Refn’s fable-like dissection of the feminine beauty standard is a truly odd duck. Visually gorgeous, and cold as ice, this story of a young model’s attempts to make it in Los Angeles often zags when you expect it … Continue reading

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Review: Seoul Station aka 서울역 (South Korea 2016)

Seoul Station is an animated prequel to one of my favorite genre films of last year, the chaotic zombie thriller Train to Busan (reviewed here).  I say prequel, but as a practical matter, Seoul Station is less a prequel than another … Continue reading

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Review: The Mermaid (China 2016)

It may have been a colossal moneymaker, but The Mermaid is pretty far from Stephen Chow’s finest. Still, this bizarre take on The Little Mermaid is damn funny, with all the slapdash CGI and manic hijinks that have come to … Continue reading

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